Brittany gets robbed

Yep, as most of you know, I got robbed on Tuesday. For those who don't, I'll provide the story. At least it gives me something to blog about, right? Tuesday, after my morning class, I walked through the Old Zone to the bank. Every month, the program gives us a 250 euro check, which we go cash and then use to pay our rent (my rent is only 160, so normally I get an extra 90 euro which is always nice). I went inside, waited in line and cashed my check, stowing the money in my wallet. I then proceeded to walk home, a bit of a walk from my house. I came in, dropping my purse on my couch, opening one of the wings of my window to get some fresh air, hit the power on my computer so it would wake up, and then headed into the kitchen to make myself some lunch. I decided to make myself some rice, and set up making it. The kitchen is next to my room, with our small bathroom in between. As I was cooking, I noticed that one of my roommate's shoes fell off the kitchen's window ledge, where he had set them out to dry. The window itself was closed, but I thought I saw a pole or something that had knocked it down. Figuring it was just my roommate trying to get his shoes down, or that the wind had knocked down the shoe and I had just imagined the pole, I kept cooking, as I had to keep constantly stirring anyways. About 20 or 30 mintues, I finished cooking, grabbed a school book that needed to go back in my room, and headed back into my room. The first thing I noticed was both wings of the window were wide open, which I thought was strange but figured the wind could have just blown them open. I walked over and closed the window, turned around, and looked at my desk. My laptop was gone. Panicked, I started looking all around my room, just in case my laptop had magically moved. Then it hit me: I had been robbed. I snatched up my purse, grabbing my wallet and opening it up; all my money was gone, my recently cashed 250 euros (when I got home my apartment owners weren't there, so I was going to pay them later that day), plus probably an extra 20 that I had in there before. Now I was really upset, my first thought being that it had just happened; maybe the robber was nearby. I ran outside, running around the building, but the only people around were some street workers, and one of our old next door neighbors. I hurriedly asked the workers if they had seen anything, which they replied they had not, and then I saw my apartment owner, who was walking up from town back to the house. I ran over to him and sputtered out what had happened. What followed was lots of crying and panicking; I kept calling Mar, our program director, although she was finishing up teaching class so it took a good ten minutes for her to get my message. I finally got her on the phone, and she headed right over, taking about ten minutes to get to my apartment. Meanwhile, my apartment owner had called the cops, who said that I would need to come in and get a statement before they would come check out my place. Thankfully, Mar arrived, who speaks Spanish and English, and she took it from there. I love Mar, she's such a nice, caring person, and she immediately took charge, translating for me so I wouldn't have to, and just helping me get through it. She drove me over to the police station, where I was questioned (with her still acting as translator if needed) and a report was drawn up. After the police she took me home, where I double-checked my room to see if anything else was stolen. Luckily, my credit cards, passport, etc. were all still there. The only other thing missing was a silver necklace I had on my bedside table, one of the ones I got in Provence. I was really happy to see that in the mess that is my purse they had not seen my Ipod,so at least I've still got my music. So yeah...after that, I called Laura so I could borrow her laptop, and she came over right away, being amazingly helpful and supportive. I then called home, relating the events to Mom and Dad, and just waited in my house for the police to come later that evening, doing some homework while I waited. So yeah, that's my story, pretty shitty. My room is towards the back of the house, on the second story...never would of thought I would be robbed. It looks like the robber used a chair from the tiny patio outside, used that to climb on top of a little structure, and then pulled himself up into my window. Everyone I've talked to, police included, just keep repeating how strange the whole thing is. Stuff like this never happens in Santiago, especially in such a manner, so the theory is that I might have been followed home from the bank. In any case, it was really upsetting...my laptop had all my work from all my years of school, plus some work I had been doing for classes this semester that I am now going to have to re-do. All my professors have been really understanding, giving me extensions when needed, which is really great. But yeah...it really sucks, and I've been in a bit of a funk since it happened.
On a more positive note, I got back my two exams from last week, and did really well on both (100 on my transatlantic exam, yayy!). I also finished up Mar's essay and got it in almost on time (she said I could take extra time if I needed to), so it's nice to have all that done. Unfortunately I'm going to have a whole bunch of work coming up, especially because I lost a fair amount of it that I am now going to have to re-write. Today I'm going to Italy for 8 days for Semana Santa (our Spring break); it'll be nice to do some traveling to take my mind off of things. On that note, I really need to go get packed and ready to go, but just want to let everyone know I'm doing okay, and fill everyone in on recent events.
Love you all, will let you know how Italy goes,
Brit